[01x02] October 6th, 2008

[Icedvovo]

Here's really what's wrong with TGAU. Producers take note.

TGAU has great Production Values, but no Story.

To illustrate. The winner of short film festival, Tropfest New York. Shot entirely on a phone camera!!

Great Story, and absolutely no Production Values. Brilliant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrDxe9gK8Gk

[Jupix]

Originally Posted by bolly

Interesting to me that a lone Englishman thinks Charlie Cox rox, while the vast majority of locals (i.e. Australians) who've posted here think Charlie Cox lives up to his surname.

Interesting, I too think he's the most likable of the three.

[Rick914]

I thought it was OK, but if they had to do a "Holden v Ford" thing, why not do V8 v V8? That would have made more sense to me.

[svb]

Originally Posted by Icedvovo

Here's really what's wrong with TGAU. Producers take note.

TGAU has great Production Values, but no Story.

To illustrate. The winner of short film festival, Tropfest New York. Shot entirely on a phone camera!!

Great Story, and absolutely no Production Values. Brilliant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrDxe9gK8Gk

Yep. Pretty much hit the nail on the head again.

[2Billion]

Hey that was an improvement. Cox toned down the cockitude, and he's actually inching towards being a good presenter. I think he's stopped trying to be the lightly obnoxious old guy that Clarkson tends to play sometimes and has started being more like himself.

I think everyone else got on the main problem, that it sort of lacks a cohesive thread through it. Lots of things happen, but they don't always tie together especially well. I have confidence that they'll get there though.

[fbc]

Originally Posted by Rick914

I thought it was OK, but if they had to do a "Holden v Ford" thing, why not do V8 v V8? That would have made more sense to me.

Because the F6 is a vastly better, faster vehicle than the GT / GT-P models.

[Eye-Q]

Originally Posted by hypnotoad8128

Charlie needs to stop waving his hands around so much and making bad puns about going to an ad break.

Oh yes, definitely, it's too theatrical, not natural in any way...

Besides that, it's a bit weird to see the Ford GT getting around a corner pretty slow and very flat but the commentary is that it's understeering - does he know anything about over- or understeering?


The picture language is excellent like TG UK but the commentary needs to be improved. I hope they can sort it out once they get more comfortable in their roles.


Overall better than the average Fifth Gear-episode but still a long way to get to the quality of TG UK, 6/10 from me.

[NooDle]

I really really liked this episode, even if it had cars in it that I've never heard of or don't care about at all (utes).

I'm beginning to get TGA now, they've got a challenge (utes), a regular review (Holden v Ford) a supercar review, and some weird stuff at the end with the smart hearse.

BTW how come you Aussies get a Ford GT with 800 horses, and the rest of the world "only" gets 550?
the sound of that car was FAN-BLEEDING-TASTIC btw

overall 8/10 a big big improvement on last week.

[fbc]

Originally Posted by NooDle

BTW how come you Aussies get a Ford GT with 800 horses, and the rest of the world "only" gets 550?

We don't - it's a private import converted to RHD locally, and no doubt receiving quite a number of motor tweaks in the process.

[Leo_Straight6]

I thought this episode was bloody fantastic 10x better than last week

[Dr_Grip]

I don't know what all of you liked about the GT review. Just compare it to any positive review on TG UK and you'll see what i missing: The visible excitement of the driver. Cox is so controlled, so unexcited, if that is how agitated he gets from something better than sex, i pity his wife. I mean, he does not have to get full-blown Clarkson mad, yelling POWEEEEER, but James, Richard and even D Motor's Tim Schrick have their own way to make us feel their excitement if they really like a car. Or hate it. There was just a total lack of emotion in the GT review.
The Holden vs. Ford segment was much better, wittier, funnier but i agree that it looks more than a bit like they didnt want to offend anyone.
Challenge was on par with TG UK, i think...
I loved the hearse bit, if only beacause it was the only thing in the show that was special to TG AUS. Everything else, right down to the studio interior and the test track being on an airfield just looks like a carbon copy from TG uk. Warrens conversion and WWTT are the only things that make this special, i fear... but i guess once the presenters found their style and so on TG AUS will develop a life of its own and continue in its own fashion.

7/10

[jasonof2000]

I liked the episode. They still have some work to do but it was an improvement over the first episoe.

[pepitko]

definitely an improvement over the last weeks episode. Better flow and rough edges buffed out. I voted 6 last week and 7 this week.

I liked the segments, they were fun to watch and quite informative. Stig in the dump truck
I missed some of the details in the roadtest, the Ford GT segment.. what is the 0-100kmh time, why does it have 850 HP when the regular/old one has 600-ish? Not everything needs to be mentioned, but a bit more wouldn't hurt.
The two car comparision is a very good idea, similar to Fifth Gear's dog-fight, which is always fun to watch.

Overall, good job (camera shots, music, noise, editing was excellent), I like the ideas TGA has (what were they thinking, different segments) and I am looking forward to new episodes.

EDIT: The audience seems a bit dead (maybe not as hyped as in UK?) and everybody looks quite old

[Solberg]

I really liked this episode.

I gave it a 8.

Great to see the presenters being a bit more like themselves.

[junas125]

This was a much better improvement over the last one. I really liked the review of the GT and I liked the onboard sensation of straight line speed. They have also improved on filming the cars going through the their track. Good job guys!

[melbournian]

This was heaps better than the first one. I missed the start of the GT review but it looked pretty good. I really liked the Ford Vs Holden segment, the footage of the cars drifting around the track was stunning and it looked like heaps of fun. The Ute challenge was interesting and it was cool seeing Stig in the mega dump truck, and the smart hearse was very funny.

[Epoq]

This episode was much bett-... wait, no, this episode sucked too. They seriously need to drop the Stig introduction and come up with something of their own--I cringe every time Cox begins with "some say...".

[Koenig]

Question.....why does this Ford GT have 850hp?

[fbc]

Originally Posted by Koenig

Question.....why does this Ford GT have 850hp?

They never explained it - presumably it's had some (a lot?) mods along it's journey from LHD to RHD.

[Dr_Grip]

Originally Posted by fbc

They never explained it - presumably it's had some (a lot?) mods along it's journey from LHD to RHD.

...which had to have been explained in a car program like Top Gear. I want to hear Charlie bragging on about how many extra HP they got out of the engine by doing a-long-list-of-exotic-modifications and how much faster it goes cause of that...